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Rory Cellan-Jones reports on Twitters rise to the stock market

Twitter says it plans to join the stock market in the most hotly anticipated flotation since Facebook's last year.

Referring to the official paperwork needed to join the market, thecompany tweeted: "We've confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned [initial public offering]."

Investors value Twitter, founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, at more than $10bn (£6.3bn).

Twitter gave no further details as to the timing or price of the offering.

The microblogging service is on track to post $583m in revenue in 2013, according to advertising consultancy eMarketer, up from $288m in 2012.

Most of Twitter's funding comes from advertising, with companies paying for "promoted tweets" that appear in users' Twitter feeds.

Advertisers are keen to target Twitter's 200 million active users, who send more than 500 million tweets a day.

Mobile first

But some analysts believe the risk for Twitter post-flotation is that if the drive for greater advertising revenue leads to increased numbers of adverts in and around the site, they could become intrusive and unpopular with users.

"There's a few issues [such as] how many revenue streams can be developed beyond just advertising, the impact of more people accessing the service via smartphones," said Colin Gillis, a New York-based technology specialist at BGC Partners.

Nearly two-thirds of users access Twitter via mobile devices that have traditionally been difficult for advertisers to reach.

This is one reason why Twitter has acquired MoPub, a mobile-focused advertising exchange, for a reported $350m.

"Twitter was more or less a mobile-first platform from the start and so the company built its experience to work relatively well across devices," Clark Fredriksen of eMarketer told the BBC.

"Ultimately, they did a good job of monetising their mobile user base."

Learning from Facebook

"Twitter is one of the last of the major developed social networks to file [for an initial public offering or IPO] - we've already had Facebook and LinkedIn," said Mr Gillis.

Facebook listed on the stock market in May last year. Although it initially created excitement among investors, its share price performed poorly, before recovering this summer.

The timing of the IPO is likely to be related to renewed activity in stock market flotations. There have been 131 IPOs priced so far in 2013, according to IPO tracking firm Renaissance Capital - a 44% increase on the same period last year.

Activity is climbing back towards the pre-financial crisis levels of 2007, says Renaissance.

Andrew Frank, social media expert at technology research company Gartner, said: "[The IPO] gives its investors a way to get some of the money back that they put into the company at the beginning.

"It gives the employees a similar kind of event to reward them for the success they've had so far. And it gives Twitter itself extra funds to invest in new projects and innovation."

Mr Gillis said it was impossible to say how great the demand for Twitter shares would be until the company released a valuation.

Analysts say Twitter must continue to innovate under the scrutiny of public ownership.

"One of the things they will have to focus on is making sure that they keep their users very actively engaged," Nate Elliott, an analyst at the tech consultancy Forrester, told the BBC.

"One of the things Facebook has done very successfully over the past year-and-a-half has been to show that not only is the number of users growing, but that those users are becoming more active."

'This tweet is going public?'

Twitter's tweet announcing its filing immediately went viral - it was re-tweeted more than 8,000 times within an hour of its posting.

For many users, it seemed apt that the company would use its own platform to announce the news.

"Naturally Twitter announces its IPO via Twitter. What other way?" oneread.

Twitter later sent a follow-up tweet, which read simply: "Now, back to work."

Once a company has filed paperwork with US regulators for a planned IPO, it enters a so-called "quiet period" when it is not allowed to speak to the media.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission's website, a company can file a confidential prospectus for a public share sale if it is classified as an "emerging growth company" with revenue of less than $1bn.

John Kerry: "There is no military solution, it has to be political"

Syria's chemical weapons must be destroyed or removed by mid-2014, under an agreement between the US and Russia.

US Secretary of State John Kerry outlined a six-point framework under which Syria must hand over a full list of its stockpile within a week.

If Syria fails to comply, the deal could be enforced by a UN resolution backed by the threat of sanctions or military force.

The US says the Syrian regime killed hundreds in a gas attack last month.

The government of Bashar al-Assad denies the allegations and has accused the rebels of carrying out the attack on 21 August.

In a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Mr Kerry called on the Assad government to live up to its public commitments.

"There can be no room for games. Or anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime," he said.

Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov said if Syria failed to comply, then a UN resolution would be sought under Chapter VII of the UN charter, which allows for the use of force.

Mr Kerry said inspectors must be on the ground by November, and that the stockpiles should be removed or destroyed by mid-2014.

The six points outlined by Mr Kerry were:

The amount and type of chemical weapons must be agreed and "rapidly" placed under international control
Syria must submit within one week a comprehensive listing of its stockpiles
Extraordinary procedures under the Chemical Weapons Convention will allow "expeditious destruction"
Syria must give inspectors "immediate, unfettered access" to all sites
All chemical weapons must be destroyed, including the possibility of removing weapons from Syrian territory
UN will provide logistical support, and compliance would be enforced under Chapter VII

France, which was the only country willing to join the US in taking military action in Syria, welcomed the agreement.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said it was an "important advance".

However, the military leader of the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army rejected the deal and promised to continue fighting.

"There is nothing in this agreement that concerns us," said Gen Salim Idriss, describing it as a Russian initiative designed to gain time for the Syrian government.

Mr Kerry said he hoped the deal would help kick-start a wider peace process.

"We could also lay the groundwork for further co-operation that is essential to end the bloodshed that has consumed Syria for more than two years," he said.

"What we agreed on here today could conceivable be the first critical concrete step in that direction."

Mr Lavrov suggested there could be another international peace conference on Syria by October.

"The main thing is to make sure that all Syrian sides are represented at the conference," he said.

Over the years there have been several conferences, some of which have included the Syrian opposition and excluded the government.

More than 100,000 people have died since the uprising against President Assad began in 2011.

Millions of Syrians have fled the country, and millions more have been left homeless by the fighting.

Nadal subdues Stakhovsky to put Spain in control

Rafael Nadal jubilates after defeating Sergiy Stakhovsky during the Davis Cup World Group Play-offs.(AFP Photo)

MADRID: A ruthless Rafa Nadal made a seamless transition from hard court to clay when he crushed Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-0, 6-0, 6-4 to give Spain a commanding 2-0 lead in their Davis Cup World Group playoff in Madrid on Friday.

Turning out for his country only four days after his US Open triumph in New York, the world number two showed no sign of fatigue or sympathy for his 92nd-ranked opponent as he dismantled the hapless Stakhovsky in devastating fashion at the futuristic "Magic Box" venue.

Clubbing winners apparently at will on the Manolo Santana showcourt, Nadal put Spain firmly in control following Fernando Verdasco's 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 success against Ukrainian number one Alexandr Dolgopolov in the opening singles rubber.

Stakhovsky, who caused a sensation at Wimbledon this year when he beat seven-time champion Roger Federer in the second round, raised his arms and was given a rousing cheer when he won the opening game of the third set.

He found the inspiration to hold serve three more times before Nadalsecured the crucial break to lead 5-4 and clinched victory on his first match point when Stakhovsky sent a backhand service return sailing beyond the baseline.

It was the first time in 769 career singles matches that Nadal has won the opening two sets of a best-of-five set encounter 6-0.

"Obviously it's not the ideal thing physically to change surfaces in a couple of days," the Spaniard said in a courtside interview with Spanish television broadcaster Teledeporte.

"But it's always special for me to play on clay and it's a surface that I love," the 27-year-old added.

"I had only a very short time to adapt but I more or less felt fine."

Spain need one more point for victory in the best-of-five tie and could wrap things up in Saturday's doubles as they bid to preserve their place in the elite World Group.

Captain Alex Corretja said Nadal would partner Marc Lopez, while Ukraine's designated doubles pair is Denys Molchanov and Vladyslav Manafov.

DECISIVE POINT

There had been doubt over Nadal's participation after his exertions at Flushing Meadows, where he beat top-ranked Novak Djokovic to claim a second U.S. Open title and his 13th grand slam singles crown.

He has not played in the Davis Cup since helping Spain to victory against Argentina in the 2011 final in Seville, their third triumph in four years and fifth overall.

After Friday's stroll against Stakhovsky, the French Open champion has now won 21 of his 22 Davis Cup singles matches, including a perfect 17 out of 17 on clay.

"We don't have it wrapped up yet, there is still one point to get and we have to be careful," Nadal said.

Spain are in the playoffs after losing away to Milos Raonic's Canada in the first round in February when Nadal, who had just returned from an injury layoff, did not feature.

Djokovic picked himself up after his US Open defeat to help Serbia move ahead against Canada in Friday's World Group semi-finals, while holders Czech Republic led Argentina 1-0.

In other World Group playoff matches, world number three Andy Murray beat 16-year-old Croatian Borna Coric 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 as Britain ended the opening day 1-1 in Umag.

Switzerland were unable to call on Roger Federer but took a 2-0 lead against Ecuador, with US Open semifinalist Stanislas Wawrinka getting his side off to a winning start.

Germany also opened up a 2-0 lead against Brazil.

Delhi gang rape: Many doubt death sentences will stem sexual attacks

Protesters shout slogans seeking the death sentence
for the four Delhi gang-rape case convicts.

NEW DELHI: There was no mistaking the whoop of joy that rose outside Skate District Court on Friday, when word got out that four men convicted in last December's horrific gang rape and murder had been sentenced to death by hanging. People burst into applause. They hugged whoever was beside them. They pumped the air with their fists.

"We are the winners now," said a woman holding a placard. Sweat had dried into white rivulets on her face, but she had the look of a woman who had, finally, gotten what she wanted. And it was true: A wave of protests after the December rape have set remarkable changes in motion in India, a country where for decades vicious sexual harassment has been dismissed indulgently, called "eve-teasing."

But some of India's most ardent women's rights advocates hung back from Friday's celebration, skeptical that four hangings would do anything to stem violence against women, a problem whose proportions are gradually coming into focus.

"I think a lot of people were hugging each other because they thought this evil is localized, and it will be wiped out, and that is not the case," said Karuna Nundy, a litigator who has argued before the Supreme Court. "The sad truth is that it is not a deterrent."

From the moment it broke, the story of the 23-year-old woman who became known as "Nirbhaya," awoke real rage in the population.

Hoping for a ride home from a movie theater, she and a male companion boarded a private bus, not realizing that the six men aboard had been cruising Delhi in search of a victim. After knocking her friend unconscious, they took her to the back of the bus and raped her, then penetrated her with a metal rod, inflicting grave internal injuries. An hour later, they dumped the pair out on the road, bleeding and naked. She died two weeks later of her injuries.

Young men and women, mobilized through social media, joined protests that spread across India, demanding tougher laws and more effective policing.

"As a woman, and mother, I understand how protesters feel," Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress Party, said at the time. "Today we pledge that the victim will get justice."

After intensive public discussion of the case, some changes followed with extraordinary speed. Reports of rape have skyrocketed; in the first eight months of this year, Delhi's police force registered 1,121 cases, more than double the number from the same period in 2011 and the highest number since 2000. The number of reported molestations has increased sixfold in the same period.

The government created a fast-track court for rape cases and introduced new laws, criminalizing acts like voyeurism and stalking and making especially brutal rapes into a capital crime. Scholars have delved into the social changes that may be contributing to the problem, as new arrivals in India's huge cities find themselves unemployed and hopeless, stuck in "the space below the working class," as the writer Rajrishi Singhal recently put it in an editorial in The Hindu.

But many were thinking of something more basic — punishing the six (one, a juvenile, got a three-year sentence in August, and the driver was found dead in his cell in March) who attacked the woman in the bus. It was those people who found their way to the Saket courthouse on Friday. Many came like pilgrims, hoping to find closure in a case that had haunted them.

Kiran Khullar arrived in a wheelchair, accompanied by her daughter, 17. "I have come here as a mother," she said. "I came here only to see these men get the death penalty."

A 62-year-old grandmother, Arun Puri, had scribbled the words "Hang them! Hang them!" on her dupatta, a traditional scarf. Asked whether she felt sorry for the defendants' parents, she did not flinch. "If these men were my children," she said, "I would have strangled them to death myself."

Rosy John, 62, a homemaker watching the furor outside the courtroom, said her only objection to the death sentence was that it was too humane a punishment.

"After death, they will get freedom," she said. "They should be tortured and given shocks their whole life."

In fact, it is unlikely the four men will be executed swiftly. The order must be confirmed by the Delhi high court, and all four defendants may appeal to the high court, the Supreme Court and the president for clemency. Some 477 people are on death row, inching through a process that often drags on for five or six years. Three people have been executed since 2004, and there were no executions for eight years before that.

Sadashiv Gupta, who defended one of the men, a fruit seller named Pawan Gupta, said he had assured his client that the sentence was likely to be commuted to life in prison, as most are.

"I told him: 'You are going to get the death penalty. Take it in stride, and don't panic,' " said Gupta, sweating in his stiff white collar outside the courthouse. "I think he shall not be hanged."

Polls show that Indians remain ambivalent about using the death penalty, with 40 percent saying it should be abolished, according to a survey by CNN, IBN and The Hindu, a daily newspaper.

For many months already, advocates for women have questioned whether death sentences in the December case would distract people from the more difficult question of why Indian girls and women are so vulnerable to sexual violence.

"A base but very human part of me would like them to suffer as much as they made that woman suffer," wrote Nilanjana S Roy in The Hindu, noting that most rapists are not strangers. She went on to envision the result if convicted rapists were hanged consistently for a year: 10,000 neighbors, shopkeepers, tutors, grandfathers, fathers and brothers.

"I wish I could believe that this sort of mass public execution — if we agreed that this was the way forward — would do more than slake our collective need for vengeance," Roy wrote. "But I don't believe in fairy tales."

Nundy, the Supreme Court litigator, said the real challenge lies in shaking up the criminal justice system, which is desperately short of judges and mired in outdated thinking about violence against women. Upon receiving a report of rape, she said, police investigators still routinely use a "two-finger test" to determine whether the victim has a prior sexual history; if the answer is yes, she said, the likelihood of a conviction plummets.

"Rape is not just something that is localized — you find these people, you wipe them out, you're done," she said.

Still, there were some people whose satisfaction on Friday could not be punctured. Among them was the brother of the victim in the December gang rape.

She was the firstborn and the star of the family, which had left a village of thatched-roof huts for the dizzying sprawl of Delhi, 600 miles away. To pay for her tuition, her father had sold most of his land in the village, borrowed money from family members and worked 16-hour shifts handling luggage at the airport. She had promised to return the favor by paying for her younger brothers' schooling once she became a physiotherapist.

The brother pondered the question of mercy on Friday night.

"They never gave my sister a chance," he said in a telephone interview.

He noted that she had managed to make her own wishes known, telling a court official, who visited her in a hospital before she died, that her assailants should be "burned alive." He said the family would wait for the day they are hanged, and, in the meantime, "keep the fight going that my sister has ignited."

"We know she can't come back," he said. "But there is a satisfaction that these men will be eliminated. We get some peace from that."

Investors excited about emerging markets, including Brazil. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/Getty Images)

Where some see dross, others spy gold. Case in point: BRICs.

BRICs — primarily Brazil, Russia, India and China — comprise some of the largest and most-developed global emerging markets, not fared well overall this year. But they are once again being considered by investors as they take a closer look at some battered, and possibly bargain-priced, stocks.

Overall, many investors have been fleeing emerging markets. For the first seven months of the year, emerging market equity funds had a net outflow of $4.5 billion, as global investors scurried back to the US and Europe, lured by the idea that US interest rates could rise — a boon to investment returns — if the Federal Reserve winds down its long-running stimulus program, as widely expected.

But the decline among emerging markets stocks may be leaving some golden buying opportunities, say some experts, especially among the BRICs. Those powerhouse economies, including the core four BRIC countries, have strong fundamentals that can insulate them from some of the broader volatility. Those fundamentals include a large and expanding middle class and increasingly sophisticated, acquisition-minded companies.

They also have strong gross domestic production (GDP), the measure of the value of goods and services produced within the country’s borders. Overall, measured by purchasing-price-parity adjusted GDP, emerging markets will create $1.6 trillion more goods and services than advanced markets in 2013, according to the International Monetary Fund.

“Cheap”

The overall decline among emerging markets stocks may be leaving some golden buying opportunities

A recent JP Morgan Asset Management emerging market research report noted that BRIC stocks currently look quite “cheap,” as country valuations hover near the bottom end of historical valuation ranges. All four BRIC countries will have higher GDP growth than the US this year, according to JP Morgan.

China and Russia have relatively low debt, 31% and 12%, respectively. And China’s ample international reserves total nearly $3.5 trillion. Both countries’ GDPs are also growing: China’s growth will hit 8% this year, Russia’s 3.4%.

Though there’s no sign of a comeback yet — for the first seven months of this year, the MSCI BRIC Index has plummeted 11.21% — some investors and big emerging market mutual funds, like ones run by T Rowe Price, are bargain hunting.

“We accept some risk in short-term pain,” said Todd Henry, emerging market equity portfolio specialist at Maryland-based T Rowe Price. “But opportunity is there in growth.”

BRIC stocks make up nearly 50% of The T Rowe Price Emerging Markets Stock Fund’s $7.2 billion in assets. The fund is adding to its BRIC holdings, especially the Russian and Indian stock allocations.

Chinese stocks also don’t look expensive right now, Henry said. In late August, the MSCI China Index price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) — a measure of how expensive a stock is — was only 9.75, versus 11.90 for emerging markets. Currently, the fund favours environmental companies such as wind producer China Longyuan Power Group Corp Ltd and gas company Beijing Enterprises.

Despite India’s plummeting rupee, the country is also high on some investors emerging market stock lists.

“India is becoming a huge buying opportunity,” said Peter Kohli, president of Pennsylvania-based DMS Funds. “The stock market is just taking a breather, but it will come back again.”

The reason, he added, is that India has about 10 years of above-average growth left, partly driven by a huge, acquisition-minded middle class. Indian multinational companies such as Tata Group, Wipro Ltd and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd will have strong earnings, he said. A depreciated rupee means these companies are now on sale for emerging market investors, he added.

Who should invest?

Bedevilled by wild swings, emerging markets are typically best as part of well-diversified portfolios, or for value-hungry investors with reasonably long investment horizons. The small sizes of most emerging market economies mean they are vulnerable to the vagaries of global investors.

“In the past, these huge investor inflows have helped prop up countries like Thailand and Vietnam,” said Jonathan Galaviz, a managing director at the Nevada-based strategy and research consultancy Galaviz & Co. “For this reason, economies in Asia have been over-heating for the past five years.”

That is beginning to change. For instance, Thailand’s GDP growth is expected to slow to 4.2% in 2014 from 5.9% this year.

Unlike smaller emerging markets, BRICs benefit from being big, diversified economies with highly liquid markets. Even so, they’re best played by using ETFs, say many experts. There are several BRIC ETFs to choose from, including country-specific ones like Market Vectors Russia ETF or the iShares MSCI India Small-Cap ETF.

Alan Miller, chief investment officer at the London-based investment management firm SCM Private, also prefers ETFs. A contrarian investor, he is eyeballing investments in emerging market BRICs like Russia. One reason: The MSCI Russia Index P/E is only 5. “Yet Russia’s earnings growth isn’t falling off a cliff,” he added.

Some other emerging market experts are looking further afield. Philippe Carre, global head of connectivity for SunGard’s Global Trading Business, says that some Eastern Europe countries, especially Poland and Rumania, are becoming star performers. These post-Soviet countries are seeing their exchanges grow, as more companies are listed.

Yet even Carre isn’t immune to the lures of some of the BRICs. “It’s hard to avoid economic locomotives like China,” he said.

John Kerry holds a news conference with leaders from the Arab League in Paris

US Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting Arab League leaders in Paris as part of a European tour to gather support for intervention in Syria.

Earlier Mr Kerry said the number of nations prepared to take military action was now in "double digits", but the list has not been made public.

France strongly supports intervention in response to the use of chemical weapons in Damascus last month.

But it wants to wait for a report by UN weapons experts before taking action.

From Paris, Mr Kerry will travel to London where he will meet the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Meanwhile, inside Syria, there are reports that rebel forces have taken control of the historic Christian town of Maalula, north of Damascus.

Abdel Rahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, told the AFP news agency that troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had withdrawn form the area.

'Silent spectators'

During a news conference with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius on Saturday, Mr Kerry said the world could not be "silent spectators to slaughter" after Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons against its civilians.

The US accuses Mr Assad's forces of killing 1,429 people in a sarin gas attack on 21 August.

Repeating a phrase he used earlier in the week, Mr Kerry said the international community was facing a "Munich moment" - a reference to the policy of appeasement that failed to stop Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

"We in the United States know, and our French partners know, that this is not the time to be silent spectators to slaughter," he said.

He insisted there was growing support for Washington's call for intervention in Syria, saying: "There are a number of countries, in the double digits, who are prepared to take military action."

This was more countries than could actually be used "in the kind of military action being contemplated", Mr Kerry added.

John Kerry: "This is our Munich moment... this is not the time to be silent spectators to slaughter"

Mr Fabius - who staunchly backs Mr Kerry on this issue - added that there was "wide and growing support" for action.

Earlier on Saturday, in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, Mr Kerry welcomed a statement on Syria by EU foreign ministers who were meeting there.

The EU ministers urged a "clear and strong response" to the alleged chemical attack.

But the EU also welcomed French President Francois Hollande's call to wait for the UN weapons inspectors' report before taking any further action.

Mr Hollande said he expected the report to be ready by next weekend.

Meanwhile the BBC has learnt that the UK government has sent chemical protection suits to some members of the opposition forces in Syria this week, as it continues to give technical and non-lethal aid to members of the Syrian national coalition.

'Defeat for humanity'

Mr Kerry's visit to Europe comes amid deep divisions over whether to take military action in Syria.

The G20 summit in Russia last week failed to produce international agreement, with US President Barack Obama at odds with Russia's President Vladimir Putin, who blames the gas attack on rebels.

Both Russia and China, which have refused to agree to a UN Security Council resolution against Syria, insist any military action without the UN would be illegal.

President Obama now faces a tough week of trying to persuade Congress to authorise military action.

Anti-intervention protesters across from the US Capitol building in Washington DC

America is divided over whether to intervene in Syria

He has only a few days to convince Congress, which returns from its summer recess on Monday. Both the Senate and House of Representatives could vote on the Syrian issue later this week.

A poll commissioned by the BBC and ABC News suggested more than a third of Congress members were undecided whether or not to back military action - and a majority of those who had made a decision said they would vote against the president.

Many remain concerned that military action could draw the US into a prolonged war and spark broader hostilities in the region.

Some 100,000 people have already been killed in the two-and-a-half-year-old Syrian conflict, according to the UN.

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